


A Real-life Love

by timetoboldlygo



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M, No Spoilers for Kingdom Hearts III, Post-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Written Pre-Kingdom Hearts III, basically sora visits like 800 alternate universes, but could be easily read as canon-compliant, major character death but in like. an alternate universe world?, some of them are. really bad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-13 04:32:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16010372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timetoboldlygo/pseuds/timetoboldlygo
Summary: It could be that he's just dreaming, but Sora knows better. These aren't dreams - these are other worlds he's visiting night after night. He's seeing different versions of his life, of himself, and of Riku, who is always there by his side.Sora isn't so oblivious that he can't notice hundreds of universes conspiring to tell him something important about Riku. He just wishes his Riku was with him.





	A Real-life Love

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [All The Worlds and Universes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5615308) by [giidas (KatushkaK)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatushkaK/pseuds/giidas). 



> sora goes to a bunch of alternate universes. some of them are bad and have death, illness, self-sacrifice ... u get the picture. it's kh after all. i read this absolutely wonderful finnpoe fic like this (All The Worlds and Universes) and i was just so INCREDIBLY INSPIRED so please check that fic out too
> 
> title from illusion by zedd feat echosmith. the whole lyric is "take me to a place with real-life love"

Sora was very warm when he woke up, _almost_ uncomfortably warm, but instead he just felt safe. He was draped over someone and - wait. That wasn’t right. His bunk on the ship just held him, and didn’t really have room to hold anyone else. He couldn’t be lying on top of _anyone_.

Sora scrambled out of the bed, almost falling over, but - it was Riku in the bed. Which both was and wasn’t a problem.

Riku himself was never a problem, but he wasn’t supposed to be here, and besides, he’d stopped letting Sora sleep in the same bed with him ages ago. And - this wasn’t even the gummi ship at all, this was a small bedroom with a big heavy quilt on the bed, and a large window. With the ocean outside. Sora’s ocean, with moonlight shining on it, casting the whole room in silvery light. This was Riku’s old bedroom; Sora knew it just as well as he knew his own.

Riku reached a sleepy hand hand out from under the covers. “Where’d you go,” he mumbled, not even opening his eyes. Sora reached out on instinct and took it. “Sora?”

“I’m here,” Sora said, and it didn’t even matter what he said, probably, because this _had_ to be a dream, because he was on a spaceship, not Riku’s bedroom on Destiny Islands. Bhe didn’t want Riku to feel alone. “I’m here, Riku.”

Riku yawned. “‘M cold,” he said, tugging Sora back to the bed.

This was definitely a dream, Sora thought, and he curled himself up against Riku, pressing his forehead to Riku’s chest. He was trying not to cry, but he just - he missed Riku so _much_. He’d always been a crybaby, and Riku had always gently teased him about it to cheer him up.

“Hey,” Riku mumbled, sounding slightly more awake. He slid an arm around Sora’s waist. “You okay? Did you have another nightmare?”

“Yeah,” Sora mumbled hoarsely. This kind of was the nightmare. “Sure. I - yeah.”

Riku hummed. “I got you."  He pressed a kiss to the top of Sora’s head. “It’s okay. You can go back to sleep.”

 _It’s fake_ , Sora thought, but it was nice all the same.

\---

He woke up the next morning _actually_ in his bunk on the gummi ship, curled up with his back to the wall like usual. He felt stupid and empty and lonely, even though Goofy was snoring in the bunk across from him. He missed Riku more than anything. It had been almost a month since the last time they’d seen each other at the Mark of Mastery exam, and that was just too long.

Maybe it was stupid, but Sora had really hoped - believed, even - that after all that time apart, they’d get to be together. Now it was just four weeks on top of three years that they hadn’t been constantly by each other’s sides. It was still a strange adjustment, somehow, even after three years, but they’d known each other their whole lives.

He groaned and rolled over. He missed Riku so much, but he didn’t want to hold Riku back! Riku had worked so hard to become a Keyblade Master, and even harder to get over all the bad things he’d thought he’d done. He thought about calling Riku, but Riku would probably know that he was upset and Sora wasn’t good with words, so he wouldn’t be able to explain why.

At least, not without making Riku feel bad, and Sora wasn’t going to be selfish, no way.

“Sorry Riku,” he mumbled to the ceiling. “I wish you were here. I bet you don’t miss me as much as I miss you.”

They were an hour outside of Twilight Town, and Donald was steering the gummi ship. Usually, Donald and Goofy refused to give Sora the driving shift in the middle of the night, because they said he was still a kid who needed his rest. Goofy even usually checked on Sora once he went to bed, very quietly. Sora would have hated it, but Goofy had a son, so if it helped, then it was fine.

Sora rolled over and punched his pillow a few times, but he couldn’t go back to sleep. He kept thinking about Riku, pulling him close. His cool fingers on the back of his neck. His lips against Sora’s hair.

\---

Twilight Town was amazing as it always was, and peaceful, even. They stocked up on supplies and got some new parts for the ship, and Sora got to crash in a real bed, in Hayner’s house, which was ten thousand times better than the bed on the gummi ship. He rolled over a little bit. A real shower had felt great, too, Sora hadn’t feel really clean in a month.

“Wish you were here, Riku,” Sora said, words muffled by the pillow. He spread his entire body across the bed, like he was making a snow angel out of sheets. It was nice but very very empty.

He didn’t wake up in a bed. He woke up in a tent.

Waking up in a tent itself wasn’t that wild, but he’d gone to sleep in a bed and he could feel a rock digging into his shoulder blade and that felt way too detailed to be a dream. His dreams were never this realistic and he rarely remembered them.

“Stop squirming,” Riku mumbled from somewhere to his left. It was dark, so Sora couldn’t see him very well at all. “I’m tired.”

“Yeah,” Sora said, which was a lie, because he sat up and shimmied out of the sleeping bag instead. He wanted to know what was outside. Riku made a garbled _i hate you so much_ sound when Sora opened the the tent flap and a gust of cool air blew in. The tent was too hot, so Sora liked it, but clearly Riku didn’t.

It was beautiful outside. Sora sucked in a deep breath of crisp air. Where _were_ they? Where were Donald and Goofy?

 _Dream_ , he reminded himself, sitting down heavily on a stump. Though again - super realistic. And he was tired, could you be tired in dreams? His feet were sore, like he’d been walking all day. Maybe he had been, since they were on a mountain. Maybe they’d climbed this whole mountain.

It was a beautiful mountain, though. The almost full moon lit up the forest for miles, turning the trees all silvery, making the clouds in the sky seem to glow. It was cold out, with a biting breeze, and Sora could see little glowing pink flowers lit up in the night everywhere.

“What are you doing up,” Riku mumbled from behind Sora. Sora just barely avoided laughing. Riku had never been a morning person and he wasn’t that great being woken up in the middle of the night, either.

“Just looking,” Sora said honestly, twisting around to look at Riku, who had one of the sleeping bags wrapped around him like a cloak. His hair was sticking up in the back and he was squinting, like it was too much work to open his eyes all the way.

This time, Sora did laugh.

“It’s not funny,” Riku tried to scowl but he just looked kind of like an angry cat. Adorable.

“Yes it is,” Sora informed him. He looked really silly.

Riku sad down heavily on the stump next to Sora, who took the corner of the sleeping bag he offered. Riku tilted a little bit to the left until he was propped up against Sora instead of sitting up, his bare arm warm against Sora’s skin.

“Can we go back to bed now,” Riku mumbled after a few seconds, his chin digging into Sora’s shoulder.

“One more minute,” Sora promised, turning to look at him. His hair was lit up by the moon and Sora ruffled a hand through it. “You can go back in.”

Riku made a little sleepy humming noise and before Sora could say anything, Riku leaned in and kissed him. Sora gasped against Riku’s lips but he didn’t seem to notice, probably because he was half-asleep. Even half-asleep, it was a nice kiss. It was soft and sweet. And familiar, like they’d done this hundreds of times before, which Sora _knew_ they had not.

He could pretend, though.

“I couldn’t sleep without you,” Riku murmured against Sora’s lips, eyes closed.

Sora’s mouth dropped open. Riku wasn’t the type to say things like that. Sora must have dreamt up a Riku that really loved him. “Right,” he said eventually, helping Riku stand up and leading him towards the tent, like that hadn’t been the first time Riku had ever kissed Sora.

It really was a pretty good kiss. It was all a dream though. So it kind of didn’t matter.

Sora helped Riku back down to the ground and helped him mess with his sleeping bag so he could actually sleep in, then he knelt for a second in the center of the tent, feeling very lost.

“Sora,” Riku sighed, holding his hand out. Again, reaching out for Sora, just like the other dream. Sora grabbed it and let Riku pull him gently down to his sleeping bag. “What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing,” Sora said, throwing an arm over Riku’s chest. It was how they’d always slept as kids.

Riku grumbled. “I don’t believe you." He cracked open one eye, and Sora stifled another laugh. Riku looked _so_ ready to talk about Sora’s feelings even though he was clearly ten seconds from falling asleep. It was really nice, actually, to have Riku love him that much. It made feel Sora feel warm all over. “You never want to stay around when you’re upset.”

“I need to move to think,” Sora whined, which was true. He was someone who paced and fidgeted, someone who cleared his head with a run or a bike ride. Riku was the one who brooded all the time. “Wait, that’s not the point. I’m fine, Riku.”

Riku groaned. “I’m only letting this go because it’s three in the morning." He yawned. “I’m definitely gonna remember this tomorrow, okay? Definitely.”

“Whatever you say,” Sora said, closing his eyes. He took a deep breath in and fell asleep.

\---

He woke up alone, obviously, because he’d gone to bed alone, even if he’d stupidly kind of thought Riku would be there when he woke up.

It was a dream, though.

Sora sat up and looked out the window at Twilight Town, propping his head up with his hand. There was a group of kids playing some game with a ball in the street below, a bunch of six-year-olds wearing bright colors.

He wanted to call Riku, but what would he say? _I had a dream that I loved you and you loved me_? What would that do?

It wasn’t that he’d never thought about kissing Riku before. He had, kind of a lot, that whole year when he’d been looking for him. Finding Riku was his biggest goal. He’d wanted them to be together forever, he just didn’t know _how_ together until they were apart.

But it was one thing to _think_ about kissing Riku, his best friend for his entire life, and another to actually _do_ it.

There was a whole lot of stuff in the way. Like, a universe. And saving the world. And the fact that Riku didn’t seem to _know_ that Sora wanted to kiss him. And he didn’t seem ready, because he kept walking around with slumped shoulders taking the blame for everything that had happened to the universe for the last three years, as if any of it was his fault. Sora couldn’t add to that. Riku still treated him like he was worried it would all break down if he pushed too hard. So Sora didn’t. They were still best friends. The kissing stuff could wait.

But the Riku in the dream - he’d been so _happy_. He’d been so sure of himself, in his and dream Sora’s love.

Sora wanted to see Riku be that happy every day.

The realization stunned him a bit; his elbow slipped off the window ledge, his wrist hit the edge with a crack and he nearly slammed his face into it.

“Fuck." Outside, one of the little kids just _hammered_ their friend in the face with the little orange ball. “Ow!”

He was _so_ in love with Riku. He didn’t just want to kiss Riku. He wanted Riku to be part of his life forever and he couldn’t imagine them every apart and he loved Riku with his entire soul. He really didn’t think he’d get this far without even kissing Riku _once_. How had he not realized this?

He’d spent years trying to find Riku, knowing that he never wanted them to be apart. He’d thought about kissing Riku hundreds of times. And he couldn’t put together that he was in _love_ with Riku sooner? Like, before they were a billion miles apart, probably. Great. Now he just had _another_ reason to miss Riku like crazy.

\---

The third night, stretched out in his bed on the gummi ship, covers kicked off because it was too hot, Sora was expecting it, which meant he wasn’t surprised when he woke up in his old room, but he _was_ surprised that Riku wasn’t there.

It was very confusing. Sora was kind of hoping for a Riku. But it was just him, alone, covered in blankets, with soft sunlight streaming in through the window. He was too warm. He was beginning to think these weren’t dreams, because he felt so caught up in them. They felt too real. He never woke up and thought _wow that was wild_ about them, because nothing wild happened. He wasn’t twenty feet tall or he wasn’t flying through the air on a pumpkin or whatever random things usually happened in dreams.

“Sora, honey,” his mom called through the door. “Time to get up.”

Sora threw the blanket off his bed and slammed out of the door, startling her. “Hi,” he said, throwing his arms around her. He missed her. He’d only seen her for a few days before he had to run off again, and maybe she didn’t understand it and maybe some of it was magic, because she’d let him, but he missed her.

“Honey,” she said, surprised. “Are you okay?”

“I just missed you.”

“You saw me yesterday.” She gave his shoulder a comforting little pat. “If this is a plot to get out of school, don’t even think it’s going to work.”

“School, really?”

“Yes,” she said sternly. “You’re almost seventeen, you’re going to finish school.”

It was all so familiar it was almost painful. The same breakfast as always. She teased him about not being able to tie the tie on his uniform, which he’d never worn before but he’d seen the older kids wearing it and apparently he was one of them now.

“Go!” She shooed him out the door after doing his tie for him. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “I bet Kairi is waiting for you.”

She was, at the end of the street. Same uniform as him, the white shirt and blue plaid. Her hair was long. It was actually really nice, getting to see this glimpse of life as it might have been. If Sora had never rushed off on an adventure, if he’d stayed here and let surfing and roller skating and sports fill his life, maybe they _would_ walk to class every day.

Riku wasn’t there, though. Kairi made a face when he asked, saying she didn’t know, and he wasn’t in any of Sora’s classes. But Riku had always been better at math and science, so maybe he was in advanced classes. But he wasn’t at lunch, either.

“Seriously, where’s Riku?” Sora said, squeezed in between Kairi and Selphie at the lunch table.

Tidus sighed across the table, sucking up the rest of his juice box. “Man, give it _up."_ Apparently Sora was supposed to understand what that meant. He did not.

“Hey,” Sora protested weakly. “I’m serious.”

“You _know_ he’s out by the soccer bleachers, but please don’t start with that again,” Kairi said tiredly.

Sora didn’t know what that meant, either. “I’m gonna go find him.” He pushed off the bench and disappeared before anyone could call after him.

It took him a bit to find the soccer bleachers, but he eventually did. There was a figure on the bottom row, smoking a cigarette and wearing all black. Riku. He’d cut his hair short in this world too, but it look way messier, like he didn’t care very much.

“Hey!” Sora said, and Riku nearly dropped the cigarette, twisting around and staring at him with pure shock. “When did you start smoking?”

“Since when do you care?”

“I don’t want you to get _lung cancer_ ,” Sora said, and his hand shot up and stole the cigarette from Riku’s mouth before he could even process it. Not that it was this Riku’s fault, of course. He hadn’t fight thousands of heartless here. He probably wasn’t even on a sports team.

“What the _fuck_ , Sora,” Riku hissed.

Sora dropped the cigarette into the dirt and then sat down right next to Riku. Arm to arm, like they had last night. It was just a different Riku. “Hi.”

“Hi?” Riku said. “ _Hi_? What are you doing here?”

Sora shrugged. “I just missed you." It was the truth, after all.

Riku was staring at him like maybe he had brain damage. “You missed me." His voice was super flat and un-Riku like. “We haven’t even talked in, what, three years?”

Sora frowned. “Three years?”

The same amount of time they’d spent apart in the other world. He didn’t like that. He didn’t like that at _all_. If this was a dream, then why did his stupid brain dream up a situation in which he and Riku weren’t even friends anymore.

“What, you forgot?”

“No!” Sora said. “I didn’t, it just seemed very real once you said it out loud.”

Sora wasn’t sure his Riku had ever said it. They hadn’t really talked about it that much. Riku hadn’t wanted to and Sora kind of hadn’t either, because he didn’t want to think about what those three years might have meant.

He guessed maybe this was it.

Riku sighd. “Sora, just go away.”

“No!” It came out louder than he’d meant it to. “No, I missed you! I _miss_ you.” Sora leaned his head against Riku’s shoulder. “You’re my best friend, Riku, even if it has been three years, okay?”

“You don’t even know me anymore,” Riku said. “We’re totally different people.”

“I know you." He sounded scared even to himself, and Riku definitely noticed, because he narrowed his eyes and studied Sora’s face. Sora didn’t know what he was looking for, but he _felt_ scared. He didn’t want to think about this Riku growing apart from him. What if his Riku had too? “Don’t you know me?”

“I,” Riku said. Sora could tell he was about to give in. “I guess so.”

Sora let out a breath. “Thanks.” He tangled his hands up in Riku's. This Riku wouldn’t even know what he was being thanked for.

“Just why _today_ ,” Riku asked. He didn’t pull his hands away.

“I just missed you,” Sora said honestly as the bell rang behind him. “Just wanted tomorrow to be different, you know? Not like this.”

\---

This time when Sora woke up, it was because Goofy was shaking him awake because it was his turn to drive. His day at school had been pretty normal after that - he guessed, he didn’t know. He and Riku had sat there for all of lunch and then Sora had made Riku _promise_ to come over after school tomorrow, because he only got a day.

He was - he was pretty sure that these weren’t dreams, now. He was pretty sure that some other Sora was going to wake up and be totally surprised by Riku coming over. Maybe that other Sora would be unhappy that Sora meddled, but Sora didn’t really have a choice.

He couldn’t just accept them apart like that.

He slid into his seat, taking the controls, and prepared himself for exactly four hours of driving. That was about how long he could sit still for, so that’s how long the shifts were, and even that was too long. Riku was better at this than him.

He thought about calling Riku, but his dream or the other world or whatever it was stopped him. Maybe _that_ world could be easily fixed by reaching out but it wouldn't work here. Here, if they’d grown apart - then they’d just grown apart.

“Stupid,” Sora mumbled, though he couldn’t shake the feeling.

It was - probably why he hadn’t called Riku very much, actually. Sora wasn’t very good with words and Riku was always saying words he didn’t mean, like _I’m fine_ instead of literally anything else.

And - maybe they had changed.

Of course they had. But Sora was definitely sure that while they’d both grown, they’d grown together. They’d been best friends for fourteen years! They’d still be best friends.

He just didn’t want to talk on the phone and not know what Riku meant because he wasn’t _there_. He didn’t want to talk on the phone and lie to Riku and then find out, on the _phone_  that Riku couldn’t tell he was lying anymore. It was fine if Riku didn’t - Sora had spent months confused by his own face in the mirror, the sound of his voice, after the sleep pod, so how could he expect Riku to still know it?

But they couldn’t work on it when they were so far apart. Three years was nothing compared to how long they’d been friends, but it kept getting _longer_ and Sora was getting more desperate.

_\---_

It was seven days of dreaming before Sora ended up in a world that _sucked._  He didn’t wake up with Riku beside him. He woke up because a phone was ringing and the sun streaming through the window told him it was late in the morning.

He picked up the phone. Maybe it was Riku. “Hello?”

“Sora!" It was Kairi, sounded very relieved that he'd answered. “I’ve been calling for forever.”

“Sorry,” Sora mumbled.

“I’m going to be over in fifteen, okay,” Kairi told him. “Are you dressed?”

Sora looked down. “No,” he said truthfully. “I just woke up.”

Kairi was quiet a moment. “Okay." Sora didn’t get it, he didn’t get what he’d said. Sure, it was unusual that he’d slept in, but Kairi sounded worried. “Get dressed. Shave. Maybe, um - maybe wear that blue shirt Riku liked?”

Sora had no idea what shirt that was. “I don’t - I don’t know where it is?”

Kairi sighed. “Okay, wear whatever,” she said. “Fifteen minutes.”

Sora put the phone done back on the bedside table. Riku wasn’t around, which was kind of weird, because Riku seemed to be the main point of all this. Then again, he hadn’t been there the morning Sora went to school. But he’d been there all the other nights, all the other worlds.

There _were_ pictures of him - there was a picture of him and Sora, wrapped around each other, both sunburned on the beach. Riku was wearing a big floppy hat and smiling. A picture of Riku and Kairi, during an arm wrestling contest. A picture of Riku with his mom, and picture of Sora and his whole family, plus Riku, hiking.

Maybe he was out of town. Or maybe he didn’t live here?

The closet was very clearly dedicated to Riku’s clothes and Sora’s though. So he was around sometimes. Sora ran his hand across the hangers and grabbed a blue shirt from his side. There were only two blue shirts, so it was probably the right one.

In the bathroom he was greeted by a _lot_ of stubble, on a face a bit older than he knew. This was the first time he'd be able to tell he was much older and it was throwing him off, but not as much as how exhausted he looked.

Maybe he’d been sick recently or something. Not that he’d ever been a neat person, but there was generally a method to his madness. This house mostly just looked like a tornado had blown through. There were picture frames tilted on the wall, some had even fallen down. The trash hadn’t been taken out in months, and when Sora opened the fridge to see if there was anything he could snag for breakfast, it was empty. Sora _liked_ to cook. Even the fruit on the counter had fruit flies. Sora tossed those into the trash can, then grabbed a few take-out bags to toss, too. He just kept going, until Kairi beeped.

Sora stuck a hand out the door and waved as he locked up, toting the two trash bags to throw into the can near the driveway.

“Hey.” Sora slid into the car. This Kairi had cut her hair short again, so short it could barely be styled, and she looked tired even as she waved.

Kairi gave him an approving glance. “You found the shirt.”

Sora looked down. “Uh, yeah.” He gave a little tug. “In my closet.”

“Great,” Kairi said cryptically, backing out of the driveway, her hand on the back of Sora’s seat to balance. Sora had never asked, but he wondered if his Kairi had a license too. “So you took the trash out.”

Sora frowned, confused. “It was getting gross?”

“That’s good,” Kairi said. “Normal. You even shaved.”

Sora narrowed his eyes at her. “So?”

“Nothing!” Kairi protested. “It’s just good. Glad that you cleaned up.”

“Kairi, you’re acting really-” he was going to say weird, but then Kairi took a left and swung into a cemetary.

Sora stared out the window, watching green grass and gray tombstones swim by. “Why - why are we here?”

Kairi cut the engine. “You haven’t come here yet,” she said softly, taking the keys out of the ignition. “It’s - it’s been two months, Sora.”

Sora refused to let it all come together. Riku not being anywhere around. His apartment being a complete disaster zone. Things half-packed in boxes. “No."

“Sora, you promised.”

“Not today,” Sora begged. It wasn’t his. It wasn’t _his_. Some other poor fucked-up Sora was the one who should have to get out of the car. “I can’t, Kairi, I swear, I can’t do it, I can’t get out of the car - ” he was sobbing and it was hard to breath and his Riku wasn’t even dead. His Riku was incredibly alive.

“Sora, you have to let him go,” Kairi said gently. “You haven’t been here since the funeral.”

“No!” Sora screamed, surprising Kairi and, really, surprising himself. He didn’t know he was capable of being that upset and out of control. His throat ached. “Kairi, I can’t do this today." She was his best friend. She had to - she _had_ to understand. “I thought I could b-but I can’t. You have to - you - take me back home, _please_.”

Kair sighed and turned the engine back on and Sora nearly collapsed in relief. He buried his head in his hands and refused to look up until Kairi pulled into his driveway.

She tried to talk to him but he didn’t let her; he slammed the car door behind him and raced inside to throw himself on the bed and forced himself to sleep. That is, to wake up.

\---

He woke up still crying. He scrambled for the comm that was sitting at the side of his bed and immediately called Riku.

“Sora?” Riku's voice was crackly and filled with with sleep. Filled with sleep. The little screen on the comm was crackly and gray and Sora couldn’t see Riku’s face at all. Just his voice, stretching through space.

“Riku.” Sora didn't even try to pretend he wasn’t crying. He was snotty and taking in huge gasping breaths and he could _never_ hide this from Riku, not in a million years.

“What’s wrong?” Sora could just imagine that he’d sat up in bed, ready to fly over at a moment’s notice. Bedhead and pajamas included.

Sora pulled the covers back over his head, clutching the comm close. “I just had - I dreamt that you - you - were dead,” he managed to say His throat was still aching from screaming. “I had to talk to you.”

“I’m okay,” Riku said immediately. “I’m fine. I’m here.”

“Not here here, though,” Sora said, and he regretted it. _Selfish_. It wasn’t about Sora this time! He sniffled. “I'm sorry.”

“I can be there."

“Don’t be stupid,” Sora mumbled, wiping his nose. “You’re busy. I’m busy! I just missed you. And I’ll be done crying by the time you get here and then you’ll feel really dumb, won’t you.”

“I miss you too,” Riku admitted. “Do you - do you want me to talk to you?”

“Yeah,” Sora whispered. Sora had always been a big crybaby. Riku used to always just put his arm around Sora’s shoulders and talk about anything under the sun, just to let Sora have time to calm down. Riku couldn’t do the first part, but he kept talking, barely talking a break. He talked about Mickey, and visiting Twilight Town again, and he talked trying to find Aqua, and he talked about how much he missed Sora and Kairi. Anything.

Eventually, Sora calmed down. “Thanks." His cheeks felt all sticky. “I hope I didn’t wake you up.”

“You did,” Riku said. “It’s okay.”

“Sorry,” Sora said anyways. “Miss you.”

“Miss you,” Riku agreed. Then he hung up.

\---

Sora got to see a lot of worlds like this, which was nice - there was the one where he was a mermaid again, and Riku was human and waited for him on the beach. There was one where Riku was a prince and Sora had been scared to even talk to him, he looked so regal - until Riku had found Sora in the gardens and taken off his crown and pressed a kiss to Sora’s lips.

Sora was getting the point, though. It was all about Riku, everything was about Riku. It was a huge change from the last three years.

A few weeks in, Sora called Kairi. She answered after a few rings, guzzling water. She must be taking a break from training. “Hey!” She said brightly, stepping into the shade. “I miss you!”

“I miss you too!” Sora said. “Did you know I’m in love with Riku?”

She choked on her water. Sora tried really hard not to laugh but he only kind of did a good job. “Um,” Kairi said, wiping at her face. “Did you - did you _not_ know?”

“Not until like, ten days ago."

“Ten _days_ ago?” Kairi shrieked.

“Why, when did you think I loved him?”

“Like three years ago, idiot." Her little face was pressed up to the phone super close, so that he could only see her eye and a bit of her cheek and nose. “You _cried_ when you found him again.”

“Sure did,” Sora said, and she made a face at him.

“You’re completely oblivious,” she said. “You really didn’t know?”

Sora nearly dropped the comm. “It’s not like I spent a lot of time thinking about it! There was a lot of stuff to do! I didn’t have time to think about kissing Riku as much as I wanted to!” Kairi narrowed her eyes at him, and he eventually said, “It was a surprise but I’m not surprised.”

She was his best friend, so she understood that. “Okay,” she said. “I’m glad you know now.”

“Glad I know now that I’ve been in love with Riku my whole life?” Sora snorted. “Gee, thanks.”

She giggled.

“Riku even beat me on this, too,” Sora complained. “He totally figured out he was in love with me before me, didn’t he?”

 _That_ made Kairi go quiet. “What? You said you know Riku’s in love with you?”

“Uh, yeah?” He hadn’t thought about until right in this very moment but he was sure it was true. It was something always floating around in the back of his head, the idea that Riku loved him, that he’d pushed down and ignored for _years_ until this phone call.

He’d pushed it down a lot of reasons - because he and Riku were best friends, because they were best friends and rivals, because Sora didn’t want to think about it, and because Riku _clearly_ didn’t want to think about it.

“Wow,” Kairi said. “You’re an ass.”

“I’m not proud of it or anything!” She was right, though. “I kinda always knew. I just - we were always too busy competing for stuff. It was really complicated and I didn’t want to think about it, so I didn’t.”

“Not even when you were running around chasing him?”

Sora could feel himself turning red. “Maybe a little bit,” he said. “But I couldn’t think about that when I hadn’t even found him, okay?” He frowned. “Maybe if I’d said something before everything happened, maybe Riku wouldn’t be hurting now.”

“He’s gonna be okay,” Kairi said gently. Her phone shifted so that Sora could see her, sitting in the shade. She looked a little sad, but they’d talked about this before. Talked about Riku before.

Of course he would. But that didn’t mean he _wasn’t_ still hurting. It was even more clear to Sora now, seeing all the other Riku’s, who were so content in their little worlds.

Riku would get there. He had to.

-

It took him almost a month to find a Riku who knew about him. Sora had fallen asleep in the gummi ship and woken up on the gummi ship. He was sleepy and didn’t want to get up so it took him nearly thirty minutes to realize that this wasn’t the same gummi ship. Or, maybe it was, but it was Kairi’s red hair in the bunk across from him, so it wasn’t the right gummi ship. Sora poked his head into the cockpit and saw Riku driving.

“Hi.” He dropped himself into one of the co-pilot seats and looking at the side of Riku’s face. This Riku’s hair was pulled up in a sloppy high ponytail and it looked good. He was wearing a loose tank top and he looked really happy and content. Like this was a road trip they were taking.

Maybe it was just a space road trip.

Riku turned his head and looked at him for _just_ a second before focusing back on steering. “Wow, no kiss for me?”

“Oh, uh,” Sora said, scrambling up. _Thanks a lot, other universe_. It was hard to do this when there were no rules. It was just like he took a side-step into some other life and just had to do the best he could.

Riku chanced another glance at him, his brow furrowed. “Ohhh,” he said, taking Sora in. What he saw, Sora didn’t know. He didn’t think he’d looked that different when he’d brushed his teeth and saw himself in the mirror. “I see.”

Sora sure didn’t. “See what?”

“You aren’t my Sora, are you?” He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel.

Sora had yet to meet a Riku who knew this, which was kind of exciting. Maybe he’d figure out what was going on, like actually, beyond just being in love with Riku. It was a pretty wild thing to just randomly wake up in a different world. Even if Sora _had_ been doing it for a month now. He sat up a little straighter. “I guess I know how you know?”

Riku huffed. “Wow, it’s been a while,” he said thoughtfully. “You never travel anymore.”

“I don’t?”

“You don’t know anything, do you,” Riku said, as if _this_ were the surprise, as opposed to having an entirely incorrect Sora on his ship.

“Hey!”

Riku laughed. “Okay, okay,” he said. “Hold on. Go wake up Kairi, so she can drive.”

Sora stood up. “What should I tell her?”

“Just tell her - tell her you had a nightmare.”

“Uh, okay,” Sora agreed, because he could tell that meant something here, but he didn’t know if it meant the same thing it meant back home - visions of being a vessel, of being sucked into the darkness - and he figured he probably shouldn’t ask. So he went back to the bunks and shook Kairi’s shoulder.

“I’ll kill you,” she groused, looking up at him. “What?”

“Uh, I had a nightmare,” Sora said softly. He hated lying but it was kind of true. “Riku said-”

“Okay." Her face softened, just a little bit, and she sat up. “Okay,” she said again, yawning right in Sora’s face. She probably did it so he’d yawn too and it worked. “But you so owe me.” She stood up and walked towards the cockpit, just in her pajamas, which had little sheep on them. Sora could hear soft murmuring up front and then Riku appeared. Sora hadn’t noticed earlier but his pajama bottoms were pink with little pigs on them. Sora’s had little chickens on them and the fact that they all had matching pajamas was so silly that Sora couldn’t think about anything else for a minute.

“Hey, you okay?” Riku steered Sora towards the bed. “Sit down.”

“I’m fine, I just like our pajamas.” He pointed at one of the little chickens. “They’re fun!”

“I got them for you and Kairi at Christmas,” Riku said, which was somehow even funnier. Riku picking out little chicken and sheep pajamas.

Sora sat down. “Thanks.” Riku sat down next to him, and instinctively went to put his arm around Sora’s shoulders, only he remembered last minute that this wasn’t his Sora so he shouldn’t. “It’s fine,” Sora said before he could pull away.

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” Sora drew his knees up to his chest and Riku settled his arm over Sora’s shoulders, heavy and familiar, if a little awkward. “You might not be the right you but I miss you and it’s the same thing, kinda.”

“You’d know best, I guess.”

Sora laughed. “I guess,” he echoed. “I don’t know.” He was quiet for a second, bouncing his knee up and down. “Okay, so what are we doing on the gummi ship?”

“ _That’s_ your first question?” Riku asked, surprised. “Does that mean you also have a gummi ship?”

“Yeah, I do,” Sora said. “What did you think I was gonna ask?”

“Most of the other you’s asked how we met."

“Oh,” Sora said. Something in his chest felt tight. He didn’t like that. “That’s weird.”

“Is it?” Riku took Sora’s hand from his chest, where he’d been scratching at it like he could remove the wrongness, and tangled their fingers together. His hands were cold, like they always were, and that was comforting.

“Yeah, ‘cause I’ve known you since before I can remember,” Sora said. He hadn’t asked in any of the other worlds but he’d just assumed it was the same, that they’d been together since birth, practically. It didn’t seem right that they could be apart for that long. “Like, my mom babysat you when we were, like, babies. I don’t - I don’t even know who I’d be if I didn’t know you.”

“I think we can safely assume you’d be the same person,” Riku said gently. “Given that I’ve met at least seven of you.”

“I’m not,” Sora insisted. “You’re very important, Riku.”

Riku gave him a soft smile. “Don’t worry, I know." He flicked Sora’s forehead.

“Okay, okay.” Sora grinned. “Just so you know. Okay. I’ll do a better first question.”

“Yeah?”

"Yeah, how’d we meet?”

Riku laughed. “Just a year ago,” he said. “At the Mark of Mastery exam. You and Kairi were training with a different master than Namine and I were. Actually, it seems kind of ridiculous that we _never_ met until then, because we’ve both been training since we were kids, but.” He snorted. “You almost ran me over while surfing down a hill on a shield, like, two hours before our exam started.”

Sora laughed. He was beginning to get a stitch in his side from all this laughing and he loved it. “I’ve never tried that!”

“You say it was very romantic. Love at first sight. It’s a wonder that either of us even passed.”

“I swept you off your feet,” Sora said, which made Riku laugh so much that it just _had_ to be something the other Sora said before. Often, even. Maybe there was some merit to that whole being the same person thing. Maybe it was kind of comforting, after that year of completely growing into someone new while he was asleep.

Undoubtedly, though, parts of him were different than the Sora that belonged in this world. The parts that had taught Riku how to rollerblade, the parts that had fallen asleep on the beach beside him. The part that came from knowing his best friend better than anyone or anything and being known the same way.

Which - this Sora still had Kairi, and this Riku had mentioned - “Are you and Namine close, then?” Sora asked, squeezing Riku’s hand. He thought his Riku and Namine were close, but Riku was remarkably reluctant to say anything about it.

“Yeah, she’s my best friend,” Riku said. “She’s younger than us, so she isn’t a master yet, but she will be.” He sounded like he knew it was a certainty. He’d probably thought the same thing about Sora when they’d taken the exam, and look where that got them.

It was really nice to see that confidence.

“So we passed?” Sora asked. “All of us?”

This Riku was really good at reading him for someone who only known him a year. Proving Sora’s point more that they should have known each other longer. “Did we not in your world?”

“You did!” Sora gave him several comforting pats on the shoulder with his free hand. “With flying colors! I’ll take it again in a few months, probably. Well. I don’t know, maybe not, and Kairi only just started training.”

“I’m sorry,” Riku tried to say, before Sora covered his mouth.

“I don’t want to hear it,” he said cheerfully. “You passed and that’s so awesome, Riku, you deserved it. I’ll be there soon. And also it kind of doesn’t mean anything, really. There’s only a few masters left. There’s no like - I don’t know, do you have like training schools here?”

“There are four, with about twenty students each.” Sora must have looked very impressed, because Riku added, “There used to be more.”

“We have, like, two masters total,” Sora said. “There’s no training bases or anything. Whatever order the Keyblade Masters belonged to is gone. We just kind of stumbled into it, you know? We were totally normal kids before that. We went to school and we went surfing - ”

“ _Surfing_?” Riku interrupted. “I can’t even swim!” Sora doubled over in laughter. “Stop it!” Riku protested, though he was smiling. Sora was really enjoying seeing such a _loose_ Riku. Maybe it was because it was late or because this Riku was just that comfortable, but it was nice. Even before everything on the beach in the storm, Riku hadn’t laughed like that in a while.

“Okay,” Riku said eventually, putting on a straight face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to ambush you with a bunch of questions. You’re the one who wanted answers.

“Oh, yeah, sure." He’d already forgotten. “Gimme some answers.”

Riku huffed. “You’re so _casual_ about the whole thing,” he said. “You’re universe-hopping!” He grumbled about that for a few minutes - he was _such_ an old man sometimes! - before he said, “My Sora, he used to travel a bunch when he slept and I’d get some other Sora.”

Sora considered that. “Does that mean some other Sora is on my spaceship right now?”

Riku shrugged. “Dunno,” he said. “I mean, you’re asleep, technically. So maybe he’s just you right now, while you sleep.”

“Huh,” Sora said, kind of fascinated despite himself. “So all of the me’s, everywhere, we just travel. Why?”

Riku made a face. “I don’t know if I should say,” he said. “It seems kind of personal.”

“Riku,” Sora whined. “That’s not fair. You’re my best friend, you just don’t know it!”

“All I will tell you,” Riku said, clearly giving in - this was a Riku whose sharp edges had been sanded down by Sora, who smiled easily and comfortably. Less prickly. “Is that he stopped traveling so much when he and I started getting serious.”

Sora sighed. “Oh.”

“Hey, don’t look so disappointed." Riku also also looked kind of disappointed.

“Oh, no, that’s great!” Sora said quickly, because it definitely had to suck if an alternate universe version of the guy who you were in love with was disappointed you were together. “I just already knew that. That it was about me loving my Riku.”

“You knew.”

“Yeah.”

“Then why don’t you just _tell him_ ,” Riku said, fed up.

“I told you we’re on separate ships,” Sora mumbled. He buried his head in his arms, taking a moment. “It’s been a few months. Or, like, years, I guess.”

“You haven’t seen him in years?”

“I mean, I have, a little bit,” Sora said to his knees. “But, um. It’s kind of a mess. And - and I’m not gonna tell him on the phone, because I’m worried he’ll just freak out.”

Riku frowned. “How?”

“I don’t know how well I know him anymore." He sure had thought about a lot but had never said out loud before and it scared him more than he expected. “It’s been three years so - I don’t - I don’t know what he’ll do. And like, that’s not a problem, who cares if we aren’t the same people we were when we were fourteen, people change, but I need to be there, to see. Just in case we didn’t grow together. Like if he’s scared or he takes it poorly -”

“You don’t think he loves you?”

“No, he does,” Sora said confidently, because he knew that. “He just doesn’t think he deserves to.”

Riku sat back, seeming a little stunned. Sora wondered if he recognized anything of himself in the other Riku. “When will you get to see him again?”

Sora shrugged.

Riku was silent a long moment. “That sucks,” he offered up. It sounded heartfelt.

Sora rubbed at his eyes. “Yeah,” he agreed.

“Maybe you should go to sleep,” Riku suggested.

“Yeah,” Sora agreed, letting Riku push him down on the bed. Riku made to stand up, but Sora reached out and snagged his wrist. “Will you stay?”

Riku hesitated but then slowly got under the covers too. He kept his arms to himself, though, and Sora did the same.

“I’m just a little lonely,” Sora said, surprising himself, even. “Sorry, it’s kind of not your problem.”

“It’s tangentially my problem,” Riku disagreed. “It’s kind of surprising, every time, how similar you all are to _my_ Sora.” He put his palm to Sora’s heart. “I guess you really are all the same, at least in here.”

Sora giggled and put his hand to Riku’s heart and felt cold metal. “Hey, is that my necklace?”

Riku glanced down. “You gave it to me,” he said. “For our anniversary last month.”

“Oh,” Sora said, kind of delighted by this. “You gave that to _me_ for my sixth birthday.”

“Weird,” Riku mumbled.

“Weird,” Sora repeated, closing his eyes. He drew back his hand, tucking it against his own chest. He already felt kind of bad about making Riku stay here with him, it _had_ to be awkward. But Riku fell asleep pretty quickly, snuggling closer, even as Sora remained awake.

He evened out his breathing and he _tried_ , really. He’d fooled Riku, at least, because Riku mumbled, “Hey, you’re back,” very sleepily. He didn’t even open his eyes.

Sora hadn’t meant to do this, confuse Riku like this, but he’s just - he’s known his Riku so long, he doesn’t even know how to act like a stranger. They’re sleeping the way Sora always does with _his_ Riku - his arm flung over Riku’s chest, Riku’s face buried in the crook of his neck. “Shh,” Sora whispered, second nature.

“Yeah,” Riku sighed. “Love you.”

\---

Donald and Goofy could definitely tell something’s going on, but Sora didn’t want to tell them. Partially because it seemed stupid, partially because they kind of already knew he was off from missing Riku so much. Partially, it was because he wanted to share it with Riku, first. But communication has been really sporadic, even though Sora’s been making an effort to call more. He thought that meant Mickey and Riku were close to finding Aqua. He hoped.

It was a little painful to have Riku so far away and then most nights see so many Riku’s that aren’t his. Some of the worlds were happy. Some of the worlds were just a little sad. Not awful, like the cemetery, which would probably give Sora nightmares for forever once the whole traveling in his dreams thing stopped, but just sad.

Sora woke up on top of the clock tower, sleeping on Riku’s shoulder. It was boiling hot and muggy, because Sora was wearing an Organization 13 cloak, but Riku was also wearing one, so it was probably fine. They were pressed side to side, cloak to cloak, sitting on the clock tower in Twilight Town, watching the sunset. It felt a little familiar; Sora knew Roxas had done this before.

“Hey,” Riku said softly, jostling Sora off his shoulder. He pressed the palm of his hand against his eyes, which were hidden under a black blindfold. “Ready?”

“Ready for what." He reached up to touch Riku’s blindfold. Riku didn’t react, so maybe he could still see a little bit, or maybe he was just used to Sora touching him. He did pull away, though, when Sora thought about pulling the blindfold off.

“To do - you have to go find Roxas.”

“Oh, sure,” Sora said. Easy enough. “Why?”

Riku turned and looked at him, which was pretty creepy, considering it was just all black cloth. “You have to give him back." His hair was turning pink in the sunset light. “Or he’ll never wake up.”

“Oh,” Sora realized, understanding it all now. Twilight Town, the sunset. The cloaks. Somewhere out there, Roxas was waiting for this Sora to give himself up so he could return to life. And then it would be his turn to not recognize himself in mirrors and get alarmed at the sound of his own voice. “ _Oh._  Oh, I’m the Nobody.”

“Sora-”

“I can’t to." He almost wished he could; but it wasn’t his life. It was some other Sora’s life, some other Sora’s decision. But he was kind of happy Roxas got to have this chance at a life. “How about tomorrow?”

“You said you would do it today.”

“I can’t,” Sora said. “I’m not the right Sora.”

“Well, I’m not the same Riku, either." Riku misunderstood what Sora meant. “Please don’t drag this out any longer than it has to be. I - we got a year, didn’t we?”

“Did we?” Sora asked, and then Riku was tilting his head, kissing him. Sora pushed him off, gently.

Riku sighed like he knew what this was about, but of course he didn’t. “I’m sorry,” he said, and he clearly was. Sora had never seen him look so completely miserable. “You - you know this isn’t ideal. But I - I can’t just let Roxas sleep forever, and die, just because I lo-”

“I know,” Sora interrupted, instead of letting Riku say _I love you_. Riku looked absolutely miserable. How must it have happened? Had Riku tracked Sora down, intent on fighting him, only to find that Sora was probably willing to give himself up? Were they just always meant to fall in love, no matter what? Because of course Riku couldn’t let Roxas just die. “But I’m not your Sora. I’m another Sora. From a different world.”

“Bullshit.”

Sora shoved him. “I hate you,” he said, mouth dry. “Fine, don’t believe me. I don’t care. But it’s not my life.”

“No, it’s _Roxas’s_ life.”

“Did I not already agree to do this?” Sora asked, genuinely, because the way Riku was talking, it was like he was trying to _convince_ Sora, and Sora couldn’t imagine a Sora who wouldn’t do this.

Riku deflated a little bit. “You did,” he said, which, _oh_. He was trying to make _himself_ feel better about asking Sora to do this, to sacrifice himself. To ask the boy he loved, had found and loved for a _year_ to fade away forever to save his best friend.

“Just - let me watch the sunset,” Sora improvised. He lay down, put his head on Riku’s lap. He closed his eyes. “Just a little bit longer.”

When Riku woke him again, it’d be the right Sora.

\---

When he woke up, it was because his little communication device was ringing. Which was kinda freaky, because he’d just gone to bed in another world, and woke up here like his body had _heard_ his little phone.

“‘Lo?” He mumbled, putting the thing on his face right up against his face.

“Sorry.” That was Riku's soft voice and suddenly Sora was much more awake.

“Riku,” he said, rolling over so that he could talk more clearly. He squinted at the little screen, which was just a glowing green-grey instead of a video of Riku’s face “Hi.”

“I didn’t think I would wake you up." Riku's voice was a little crackly, too. “I guess that’s space, or whatever.”

“It’s fine.” Sora covered the mouth piece so that he could yawn without Riku hearing and knowing how tired he was. “What’s up?”

Riku was silent for a really long moment. “I miss you,” he said, so simply and easily that Sora felt he must have missed something, that the tides had changed and he hadn’t noticed.

“I miss you too, Riku,” Sora mumbled. “This really sucks. This was definitely not what I imagined the future to look like.”

“What did you imagine?”

“Us together,” Sora said. “We already spent too much time apart!”

“Yen Sid said -”

“I know.” Sora closed his eyes. “I get it! It just sucks. No one tells you that saving the world sucks this much.”

“It’s not that bad,” Riku said worriedly, and he must be caught in that spiral, the one where he thought Sora hated this life, then he thought he’d ruined Sora’s life, then he thought Sora must hate him, even if he knew that wasn’t true. Sora was glad he’d called this time.

“No, it’s not,” Sora agreed and just barely managed to hear the grateful breath Riku let out. “It’s pretty good, even. Just wish you were here.”

“Yeah.” Sora imagined Riku lying on his bed in his gummi ship, covers pulled up because he was always cold and space was always cold. “Yeah.”

\---

Sora opened his eyes to see a ceiling with stains on it. He was exhausted, and not just because he’d spent several hours on the phone with Riku in the middle of the night before falling asleep again.

It wasn’t a great ceiling. “Ew,” he said aloud, and to his left, Riku let out a soft noise and opened his eyes.

“Hey,” he whispered, squeezing Sora’s hand. “You’re - you’re awake.”

“Yeah,” Sora whispered back. Riku looked pretty bad. Probably because he was sleeping hunched over over a hospital bed, holding Sora’s hand. Because this was a hospital bed, and Sora was in it, and he could feel a little tube in his nose and he couldn’t see very well out of one eye. There was an IV in the back of his hand. “Sorry to wake you.”

Riku straightened up with a small groan. “I wanted to see you,” he admitted.

“That’s very romantic,” Sora told him. “But you look like, super bad.”

“You’re one to talk,” Riku mumbled, and yeah, Sora probably looked worse.

“Maybe you should go home and sleep, just for a little bit.”

“I’m not leaving you!” Riku said. “Not - not when - ” his face fell. “Well. You know.”

“I know." Sora always said that, even though he didn’t.

“We’ll be okay,” Riku mumbled. He slumped across the bed again, fingers tightening around Sora’s. “We - we have to be. The doctors said there’s still a chance.”

Sora would probably guess that he’s dying. He’d never done that before. “I’m not leaving you,” he promised, carding his good hand through Riku’s hair. Long. There hadn’t been a lot of worlds where Riku’s hair was still this long. “Can you - come up here?”

Riku hesitated, then carefully climbed onto the side of the bed. It was cramped, and Sora was so full of tubes that Riku couldn’t cuddle the way he liked to, but it was way better with him on the bed than in the chair. “You should go back to sleep,” he murmured into Sora’s hair.

If he fell asleep, maybe this Sora wouldn’t wake up again. It would be awful if that was true. This Sora would never get to see his Riku again. “I - yeah,” Sora said, because he felt okay, and maybe if he fell asleep really fast, this Sora would get one last chance.

It had to be enough.

He was so thankful to wake up back in the gummi ship.

\---

It had always seemed like a pretty fair trade to Sora that Riku should love him, because Riku was the most important person in Sora’s life.

Maybe that had always been love, Sora didn’t know.

All the other Rikus though - they knew. The way they looked at Sora, the way they smiled, every single action was just so full of love. It was a Riku that Sora hadn’t seen a long time, maybe had never really seen. Like when they were kids and Riku just let all his love pour out, before they got older and he got a little more arrogant and a little more angry and he refused to let it show. And that had been fine, because even when Riku was a little mean, Sora had kind of known that Riku still loved him, he just didn’t want anyone to know.

Sora selfishly wanted his Riku to look at him like that. Maybe or maybe not he’d always been in love with Riku, who really could know, but he’d definitely been in love with how much Riku loved _him_. And now he wanted to see that Riku, the one who was so confident that Sora loved him, the one who let himself show that love. He seemed so _happy_.

Sora wanted that more than anything. Wanted to be Riku’s side while he was happy, too, to bask in Riku’s smile and make him _be_ that happy. Let him be loved. Every time these dream Riku’s looked at Sora or casually slung an arm around his shoulders - it felt so _right._

The real Riku would never do this, even if he wanted to. Sora knew that. He was - unhappy sometimes, still a little too scared. Like he was still thinking that maybe Sora would turn on him, or maybe he was thinking it had been too many years or maybe he was thinking about how much he’d changed and how much Sora hadn’t.

When they finally gone home to the beach on Destiny Island, Riku had been finding ways to carefully avoid being too emotional around Sora. Even when Sora tried to bring it up, Riku had deflected, and Sora had let him, thinking that he just needed some time to adjust because it had been _three years_ , after all, and Riku had gone through so much.

Really, Sora had just thought that they’d eventually be okay, then they could be together, but maybe Riku would never say anything. But _months_ were going by, and nothing was changing, except now Sora kept walking up to find not his Riku nearby, and it was starting to _hurt_.

It was starting to hurt. Sora was _desperate_ to see his Riku. Every time he woke up in a new world, he forced himself to go back to sleep immediately. It felt like if he couldn’t tell Riku how much he loved him, he didn’t want to spend time with _any_ Riku. It had to be the right one.

\---

“Sora?” Riku whispered, and Sora rolled over. He couldn’t see very much. When he’d gone to bed, he’d been in his little bed in the tower. Donald and Goofy had forced him to take a little break, maybe seeing the toll this nightvisiting was taking on him, but Riku wouldn’t be here at Yen Sid’s tower, and Sora just - he couldn’t do it. He closed his eyes and evened out his breathing and eventually the door closed and the light from the hallway was gone and Sora was asleep.

He woke up early, as per usual.

There was someone in Riku’s bed across the room. In fact, it looked like _Riku_ was in Riku’s bed.

And Sora had thought it was a dream. Hadn’t greeted Riku the way he should have.

“Riku!” Sora pounced on Riku’s bed. Riku let out a pained groan and pulled his pillow over his head. Sora promptly pulled it away. “You’re back! I thought it was a dream!”

“It’s not even light out,” Riku mumbled, looking up at Sora through slitted eyes. He looked tired and annoyed. Sora loved him an impossible amount. “What, you just have really boring dreams about me going to sleep?”

“I dream about you all the time,” Sora said honestly, and he got to see the truly impressive range of emotions Riku’s face showed before he schooled it back into nothingness. “You’re better in real life, though.”

There - Riku looked shocked, then almost - angry. Sora hadn’t expected it but he should have. “Get off.” He elbowed Sora in the side. “Go back to sleep. It’s not even _dawn_.”

“Okay,” Sora agreed, and then he pulled aside Riku’s blanket and slid in.

“Use your _own_ bed!”

“I sleep better here.” He threw his arm across Riku’s chest. He always had. He’d really missed it when Riku started saying they were too old for this.

“Oh my god.” Riku shut his eyes, clearly giving in. “Fine.”

“Missed you,” Sora mumbled, closing his eyes.

He woke up again in the right bed, arms flung all over Riku, legs tangled together. Riku was still asleep, and in the pale sunlight, Sora could see the deep purple circles under his eyes. Sora wondered if he had the same ones, if they were a matched set.

Before Riku left, Sora had to tell him he loved him. He couldn’t let it wait any longer, and maybe Riku needed more time, but they’d never _know_ , would they, if he just kept waiting? And Sora wasn’t good at waiting, wasn’t good at thinking. He needed to do.

Sora reached out and traced Riku’s face delicately. Riku was a _heavy_ sleeper, always had been, and he didn’t so much as stir. He had a new scar on the tip of his ear, like something had clipped it, and he had an old familiar scar near his temple, from falling out of his tree house when he was eleven.

Sora pulled his wandering hand back and closed his eyes before immediately opening them. He didn’t want to fall asleep and get another Riku, not when his Riku was right there. But he couldn’t stay still forever, so he eventually carefully extracted himself from the bed. He’d used to be very familiar with this and for a second he froze, half on the bed, half off, as Riku mumbled something in his sleep.

“Shh,” Sora told him, very quietly, then disappeared downstairs to go find breakfast.

\---

It was a very beautiful day with Riku and Kairi there. Sunny, bright, just a little bit of wind. It started off right, with everyone eating breakfast and Kairi tucked on the bench between Riku and Sora. He’d missed her more than he knew how to say, and it felt right, all three of them in a row, knocking elbows as they eat.

They did the same thing, later that night, all three of them tucked together on a log, legs stretched out, staring at a bonfire. It had been Kairi’s idea, something they used to do on the beach all the time, just as it became sunset and the beach would cool down, sticky humidity giving way into a slight chill.

Kairi had training that day, and Riku had joined her as the Keyblade Master, which he looked really excited about before checking himself and only looking a little bit excited about. Sora kind of just jumped in every so often, in between hanging the laundry and helping Mickey with various things, then Donald.

“I’m just not very good at magic,” Kairi was saying, pointing at the little fire Sora had built. She conjured up a little fireball to match the one Sora had used to make the bonfire. Sora, in solidarity, make a little fireball in his palm too. Kairi looked at Riku, who made a face but made a fireball too.

“Sorry,” he said, as his little fireball flickered in and out of existence, fighting to even be visible. “You know I’m not good at this.”

“I got you.” Sora reached over and stole Riku’s little fireball right out of his palm. Riku made a half-amused, half-offended face then Sora stole Kairi’s too and joined them together. Then he made them into a smiley face.

“I think he shouldn’t be so good at that,” Kairi said to Riku, then dumped her water bottle on Sora’s palm, laughing.

“Hey!” Sora protested, but he was laughing too as Kairi elbowed him and muffled her laughter in Riku’s shoulder.

\---

Kairi went to bed early, which she’d always done and clearly wasn’t willing to change, which meant Riku and Sora were left to their own devices, which was also pretty typical. Or it had been. Maybe it wasn’t anymore, Sora didn’t know.

Riku didn’t seem to want to play, though. He only waited a few minutes before saying, “I’m just gonna go to bed-”

Nice try. Sora wasn’t falling for this.

“You are not,” Sora said, looking up at him. He looked unfamiliar with the shadows of the fire on his face, but Sora knew him. “We haven’t talked at all, Riku!”

“Sure we did.”

“You know that doesn’t count!” Sora grabbed his wrist to keep him from escaping. “Let me talk to you!”

“Uh,” Riku said eloquently.

“Come on.” Sora pulled him back down to the log. The fire was dying down a little bit due to the wind - Sora had been building it back up every so often. Riku’s skin was warm. “I haven’t seen you in _months_! Did you decide you hate me after four months, because that’s not allowed.”

“No, I only decided to hate you when you woke me up at five in the morning today."

Sora grinned. “Sorry,” he said. “I just missed you.”

Riku’s face softened just a little bit. “I missed you too.”

“Do you - do you think we’ll be able to see each other more?” Sora asked hopefully. “Because - this really sucks.”

“I don’t know,” Riku said. “Maybe?”

“Will you promise to call me more?”

“Only if you promise to call _me_ more,” Riku countered. “It works both ways.”

“Sorry.” Sora gave him an apologetic smile. “I got scared.” It was easy to say, because talking to Riku was always so easy and natural, but it definitely caught Riku off-guard; he frowned and looked down at his hand, which Sora hadn’t let go.

“Why?”

“I missed you,” Sora said again. “So _much_ , Riku. And I. Hm.” He shrugged. “I was just scared." For a lot of reasons, too many to really say and too many that he hadn’t thought about. “I just wanted to be around you.”

“Sora,” Riku said tightly. “You can’t just say things like that.”

“Why not?”

“Because you make me think-” Riku snapped his mouth shut, as if that would work, as if Sora didn’t know him well enough to know what he was thinking. As if his thoughts weren’t written all over his face.

“Riku, of course I love you.”

He guessed right, of course, but Riku groaned. “No, but I _love_ you." Sora hadn't expected him to say it so fast. He’d thought for sure that he’d have to coax it out of Riku. “Not like - not like best friends, Sora.”

“I know,” Sora said, not letting Riku wrestle out of his grasp. “I always knew.”

“I - you did?”

“Kinda,” Sora admitted, making an apologetic face. It had been Riku’s secret for so long. Sora might not have known, but that didn’t mean Riku was particularly good at hiding it.

“So you’ve _always_ known?” Riku's voice was getting higher with every syllable, until he was practically shouting. “Why didn’t you say anything! Why - did you just let me make a fool of myself for _years_ then?”

“You’re not a fool,” Sora said softly. Before all this, he wouldn’t have been confident saying anything else, being that he’d only really examined his feelings in the past few months, but - “I mean, I didn’t like _know_ know or anything. I didn’t think about it very much, I just let it be, but like. Looking back, I think I always sort of knew.”

“You - you -”

“It’s okay, Riku!” Sora said, trying to calm him down. “We did everything together, you know? So I always loved you too.”

Riku did something totally unexpected. He ripped his hand right out of Sora’s grasp. “You _did not_ ,” he hissed. Sora reached for him but he was already gone, the fire sputtering out in his wake.

\---

Sora carefully put out the rest of the fire, pulling the flames into his palm and smothering them. He didn’t especially want to go back to their room, where Riku probably was, because that would just make Riku feel worse.

He sat back on his heels, suddenly chilly, and made his way inside. It was completely silent, to the point of being creepy. It was late, Sora realized, too late to be awake.

He sat against the wall next to the bedroom door, pulling his knees in close to his chest. He didn’t want to think about why he’d made Riku mad. He _hated_ making Riku this mad, so mad that he just left instead of staying and bickering.

Maybe Riku just always did that now. Things could have changed.

“No,” Sora said to himself, pulling his knees a little closer. “It doesn’t matter if they did.” All those other Riku’s had loved him, and Sora knew his Riku loved him too. Riku had loved him for his entire life, it wasn’t going to change. He knew that, of course he knew that. Riku was scared and hurt, that’s all.

If he was different now, then Sora would relearn him.

He woke up later, barely conscious, not having realized he was falling asleep. He woke up because Riku was carrying him. “ _No_ ,” he mumbled, shoving at Riku. He didn’t want to see some other Riku right now, he wanted his Riku, he wanted to know what was wrong. “I want the real Riku.”

“Who do you think it is, dumbass,” the Riku said, which Sora figured was a pretty fair question, since whichever Riku this was was a real Riku. Just not the right one.

“Okay,” Sora mumbled, turning his face towards Riku’s collarbone. After a few minutes, this Riku settled him in bed and carefully, gently, untangled Sora’s hand from his shirt.

When Sora woke up again, it was his own bed in the tower, which definitely wasn’t where he’d fallen asleep, since he last thing he remembered was sitting on the ground _outside_ this room, the stone tile cool against his legs.

It wouldn’t have been another Riku at all, then, that carried him inside.

He rolled over and looked at the back of Riku’s head on the other side of the room. He thought about going over there and throwing himself all over Riku but sometimes even he could tell a really bad idea.

“Don’t even think about it."

Sora sat up. “I wasn’t gonna,” he said truthfully. “I didn’t think you’d like it after last night.”

Riku sighed. “Sora…” Sora kind of wished he’d sit up too but it was probably easier for him to look at the wall.

“You don’t have to explain or anything." He watched Riku’s shoulder tense.

“You aren’t mad?”

“No, don’t be stupid,” Sora said. “I’m confused and I hate that you won’t talk to me, but I’m not mad.” He _really_ wanted Riku to sit up. “I don’t know why _you’re_ mad though.”

“I’m not mad.”

“But you ran away.”

“Okay, fine." Riku's voice sounded very very carefully empty. “I didn’t want to deal with the problem, which is that I love you and you don’t love me.”

Sora snorted. Riku always thought he knew everything. “They’re _my_ feelings, Riku, I think I would know if I loved you.”

“No, you just _think_ you love me,” Riku said, like he’d won an argument. “You said you missed me.”

“I did miss you." Sora was more confused now than ever.

“Right, you _missed_ me,” Riku said, like that was going to make it more clear. It did not, so Sora waited for the next part. “You don’t love me, Sora, you just missed me.”

Sora blinked. “Of _course_ I missed you, Riku!” He couldn't sound bland, like Riku had; his whole voice was wavering like he was about to cry. “I’ve been missing you for _three years_! Everything feels so _wrong_ without you it’s like I’m missing an arm or a leg so _that’s_ how I know I love you!”

Riku sighed.

Sora threw the covers off. “I’m coming over there." Riku’s shoulders tensed again but he didn’t object, even when Sora sat cross-legged at the end of his bed, carefully avoiding Riku’s feet.

“Okay.” Sora said. “Riku, would you sit up, come on, this is serious!”

Riku complied. His hair was sticking up everywhere and Sora resisted the urge to reach out and mess it up more by sitting on his hands, like he was nine and Riku was upset and didn’t want to be touched.

“Okay." Sora gave Riku a little grin. He felt almost shy. “I’m in love with you.” This time, he got to see Riku’s face clearly. Riku promptly turned bright red, and Sora grinned. It was really cute. “You’re the most important person in the world to me. Don’t you _remember_ how upset I was when I couldn’t find you?”

“You cried.”

“Yeah,” Sora said, hopeful because at least Riku was making fun of him. “Riku, it’s always been you. I love you. I didn’t always know, okay, that I loved you, but I do now. It’s like all of our lives have been leading up to this!”

“You and _Kairi_ -”

“I love Kairi, she’s my best friend." This was an easy thing to admit. “But Riku, I have never felt so bad as I did when I wasn’t around you, after the storm. I wanted to be with you _so_ bad. I felt really stupid, because I should have figured out how much I wanted to kiss you before.” Riku made a squeaking noise but Sora continued. “And I couldn’t think about it very much, because you know I’m not good with complicated things, and there was a lot going on, and it kind of hurt to think about it at all, so I just tried not to. Like, I could figure that out once I found you, as long as I found you.”

Riku blinked. His hand reached out to Sora’s arm, since Sora was still sitting on his hands. “I’m so sorry,” and he sounded like he really meant it. Idiot. “If I hadn’t - ”

“That’s not why I’m telling you this.” Sora stuck his tongue at Riku. Riku automatically stuck his out back. “I don’t want you to say sorry or anything; it’s not your fault. I’m just telling you the story of how I fell in love, okay?”

“Oh my god." Riku sounded a little bit like he regretted everything in his life that had led to this here moment. Classic Riku.

“I know,” Sora agreed happily. “Where was I? Oh! When we got back to Destiny Islands, you didn’t want to talk about it, so I figured you needed some time before I gave you more to deal with, I thought you’d want to adjust and get used to me again - ”

“Get _used_ to you-” Riku started, face turning red with anger.

“And I wanted to give you that!” Sora continued loudly over him. The words rang out in the room and Riku fell silent, looking stunned. “You spent so long taking care of me,” Sora said softly. “It was my turn, you know? I wanted you to be okay, too.”

Riku reached out and touched Sora’s cheeks, which was the only reason he realized he was crying.

“It all got messed up,” Sora mumbled, scrubbing at his face. “‘Cause we got put on different ships, so I just had to wait all over again. And I did miss you, so much. I had a dream, like three months ago, that you kissed me and I woke up and realized I was so totally in love with you and that I had been for forever, probably.”

He was actually breathless, saying all that. Riku was staring at him.

“Thank you,” Riku said eventually. His hand reached out and settled on the back of Sora’s neck in that way Sora loved so much and pulled him just a little bit closer.

“Sorry it took me so long."

“It’s okay,” Riku said. “It’s not like I didn’t know you were incredibly bad at recognizing your feelings.”

“Like you’re better!”

Riku smiled, a soft beautiful thing. “Sorry I was an idiot.”

“Sorry _I_ was an idiot,” Sora agreed. “I’m gonna kiss you now, okay?”

Riku’s jaw dropped. “Okay,” he said faintly, and Sora leaned forward.

He hadn’t kissed very many Rikus when he was dreaming. A few, when he didn’t realize it was coming and couldn’t avoid it, but he’d wanted to save it.

The real Riku was infinitely better. The kiss was more smile than kiss because they were both still stupidly happy. Riku was a shy kisser, and their noses kept bumping together but even when they were laughing, Sora had never been better.

Not when Sora could kiss Riku again and again and again. And Sora did. He had to make up for lost time, and Riku’s hand was steady on the back of his neck, holding him place, supporting him, like he’d done for Sora all of their lives.

Eventually Riku pulled back, breathless. “Hi."

“Hi,” Sora said back. “We didn’t even brush our teeth.”

“You’re so _gross_ ,” Riku complained, though he didn’t seem to mind when Sora swooped in for another kiss. “Not romantic at _all_.”

“I just spilled my entire love story to you!” Sora protested. “And I’m not even done!”

“How can you _possibly_ have more to this story." Riku shifted so that Sora was draped over his lap, which Sora took to mean he could loop his arms around Riku’s neck and play with his hair, which was getting long again, almost long enough to turn into a ponytail. “We _just_ kissed. Shouldn’t that be the end?”

“It’s happily ever after, idiot, and I didn’t tell you the part where I traveled to different worlds to figure out I was in love with you!” Sora said. “I thought your head would probably explode if I added that before kissing you.”

Riku groaned. “Can you kiss me again." He was using the dry voice he used when he was trying not to let his emotions leak _everywhere_. Sora knew what he meant. “You couldn't say stupid shit when you were kissing me.”

“Sure." It was an easy request. Sora would happily kiss him for the rest of his life. “But you still have to listen to the story.”

\---

Sora stopped dream traveling after that. He figured, based on research (aka, what that one other Riku who knew about him had said), that it would probably stop since he and Riku were now together, which was kind of interesting, because _what_?

“It kind of sucks,” Sora complained, fluffing his pillow a few days later. He climbed over Riku and slid into his place between him and the wall. It was just like old times, tucked into the same bed as kids, except Sora wanted to laugh every time they got into bed because Riku was _so big_ and he insisted on being held, just like they were five again. “Like, it wasn’t you, but at least I got to see you a little bit?”

“Weren’t some of them _bad_ , though?” Riku shifted a little bit so he didn’t say the words directly into Sora’s collarbone, but it still took Sora a few seconds to understand them.

Sora had told him about a few of the worlds, but he saved a lot of them up, to keep the story going longer. He had three months of them stored up, he couldn’t possibly say everything in the few days they had together, and he didn’t want to. He wanted to be in _this_ world with _his_ Riku.

Sora hummed. “Yeah,” he said honestly. “Some of them made me really glad we’re in this world.”

Riku was quiet. “What about the one where I was dead?”

Sora swore his heart stopped for a second or two there. Maybe Riku noticed it, because he smoothed his hand over Sora’s shoulder comfortingly, fingers cool. “I didn’t tell you about that,” Sora said slowly, lifting his head so he could squint at Riku, who was lit up by the moonlight coming through the window.

Riku tapped Sora’s cheek. “You called me crying." His mouth twisted unhappily. “Months ago, remember?”

“Right, right, I - I remember,” and without even thinking about it, Sora curled his hands into fists in Riku’s shirt. He didn’t want to look at Riku. He didn’t even like thinking about that night, that dream. “That was - that one was really bad. The other Sora was a mess and I was also a mess, I didn’t - don’t do that to me.”

“I won’t if you won’t,” Riku challenged, and Sora pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“I won’t if you won’t,” he agreed. They wouldn’t. Riku kept his hand settled on the nape of Sora’s neck, keeping him steady as they listened to the crickets.

They only had tomorrow here and then they had to go tomorrow evening. Goofy and Donald and Mickey had all been waiting, being incredibly nice and giving Sora and Riku a few extra days together. Goofy had said something about a few days peace in wartime, and Sora guessed that was close enough, even if it didn’t feel like a war yet.

Kairi teased them mercilessly. She’d told Riku every excruciating detail of that phone call she’d had with Sora, which Sora had planned on telling Riku anyway, because he couldn’t keep a secret and he didn’t want to, with Riku.

Lea hadn’t said very much, but he looked happy for them.

It was always nice, being with Riku.

“Do you think you’ll ever travel again?” Riku said softly.

Sora mustered up the energy to open his eyes again. “Maybe?” He’d been mostly asleep. “If some other Sora needs it, maybe. Be sure to treat them really nice so they don’t have to do this for three months.”

“I’m always nice,” Riku mumbled. His hand left Sora’s neck and his arm draped around Sora’s back, so that they were all tangled up. Sora thought that some other him could definitely learn from this. If some other Sora needed it and found their way here, they'd be able to figure it all out from the way Riku looked at him, the way Riku smiled, the way they fit together so well.

“I know,” Sora said, because Riku would make sure everything was okay. “Love you.”

\---

Sora was definitely not ready to say goodbye. They’d been packing most of the evening - well, Sora had almost everything packed, Donald had been shouting orders. They were supposed to go in half an hour or so, and Sora was loading the last of their things when Riku appeared by the side of the gummi ship. “Talk with me for a minute?” Sora dropped the backpack he was holding onto the ground, letting Riku steer him around the tower, into the shade and away from Donald, who was definitely trying to snoop on them.

“What’s up?” Sora asked once they were alone. “Miss me already?”

Riku rolled his eyes fondly. “No." He reached out and held one of Sora’s hands.

“Oh, you want a last minute make-out session?” Sora stepped a little closer, mostly just to see what Riku would do.

He spluttered and then said, “ _No_!”

Sora gave an over-the-top shrug. “Okay, I’m out of ideas.”

Sora gave Riku a few moments to get himself under control and he did, pushing his hair out of his face and looking very serious. “I just - I didn’t say it back.”

“Say what back?”

“That I loved you,” Riku said. Sora opened his mouth and Riku cut him off, saying “And _don’t_ say it doesn’t matter because you know I do, that’s not the point.”

“Okay,” Sora relented, because that was definitely exactly what he was going to say.

“I do love you,” Riku said softly and even if Sora knew that - of course he knew - it felt so good to hear. He was grinning like an idiot. Riku was giving him such a knowing smile. “I didn’t say it a few days ago, but I did then, and I do now.”

“I knew you loved me - ”

“I _know you know_ -”

“But thank you for saying it,” Sora continued loudly, squeezing Riku’s hand. “It made me really happy.”

Riku clearly hadn’t been expecting that and he turned bright red. “Oh,” he mumbled.

“I love you too,” Sora promised, looping his arms around Riku’s waist. “And I’m really gonna miss you too.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m scared,” Sora said. He wasn’t, actually - they might be apart for several months again, but Sora had faith in them. If three years couldn’t tear them apart, another few months wouldn’t. Especially now, when they were on the same page. But he could tell that Riku was nervous, so he said it anyways.

Riku’s entire body relaxed just a little bit. He’d been trying to hide it. Idiot. “Me too,” he admitted, voice rough. His arms around Sora’s shoulders got a little tighter. “I’m really scared.”

“I’m not.”

“You _just_ said -”

“Yeah, because I could tell _you_ were scared and weren’t gonna say anything!” Sora pinched Riku's side and made him yelp. “You’re supposed to tell me these things!”

“I didn’t want to upset you,” Riku mumbled.

“Why would you upset me?” Sora asked. “Cause you thought I’d be mad that you were scared?”

“Well, you’re not!” Riku said. “I didn’t want you to think I didn’t have faith in us when you did!”

Sora blinked and drew back a little bit to look at Riku’s face. “I don’t think that,” he said. “I mean, I’m gonna miss you, but I know we’ll be okay. But you aren’t me, Riku. And it kind of makes sense to be scared.”

“I just don’t want to lose you again,” Riku said quickly, like he had to say it fast or he’d never get the nerve. “I - things go _wrong_ a lot, and I - I can’t lose you over something as stupid as not being in the same room.”

“Hey,” Sora said, reaching up and cupping Riku’s face with his hands. He was surprised by just how worried Riku was by all this, but he should have realized. Riku must have felt pretty helpless the last three years. Sora should have _known_. “You didn’t lose me. You never lost me.”

Riku nodded slowly, though he still looked a little distant, like he wasn’t quite hearing Sora clearly. “How do you not be scared?”

“I don’t know how,” Sora said, which he knew was very unhelpful. Riku snorted. “Sorry! It’s gonna be really awful to be apart, I know that, but we made it this far. A lot of bad things have happened, sure, but we’re still here together.”

Riku let out a shuddering breath. “I - I know.”

“You can trust me,” Sora promised, pressing a kiss to Riku’s cheek. “I know you’re scared, and that’s okay, Riku, it really is, but I can’t take that fear away. But I know we’ll be good. I’m not gonna let you lose me, okay? I’ll be with you every step of the way. I’m _not_ going to let anything happen, not that we’re finally here. Can you believe _that_?”

“I believe you,” Riku said, and he still looked pale and worried but he looked steady, too. Hopefully Sora had helped just a little. “I believe in you, too.”

“Good,” Sora said. “I love you.”

Riku smiled. “I love you too,” and he let Sora pull him down for a messy kiss. He was still smiling a little bit when they broke apart, which wasn’t enough, but it was better. Sora didn’t want to leave with him feeling like that. “I’m just really going to miss you.”

“Think of it like this,” Sora said, resting his forehead against Riku’s though, “We’re both saving the world together. And we’ll be together soon.”

“Romantic."

“I try,” Sora said. “We have to go soon, though. I bet Donald’s so mad at me.”

“Just a few more minutes,” Riku said, running a hand through Sora’s hair.

“Okay,” Sora said easily, letting Riku pull him in for another kiss. “As long as you need.”

**Author's Note:**

> after this things are happy and they call each other every night and then they save the world and just get to do whatever the hell they want and date and be gay. it's a real good time!!
> 
> hmu on twitter @surrealisttrees and tumblr at timetoboldlygo


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